By Andrea Fernandes
Features Editor
Photographs taken by children in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon are now on display in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.
The exhibit is located in the Paul and Toni Branch Gallery.
Evelyn Penman, assistant director of The Quick Center, explained that the center is constantly trying to change the exhibits so that students and faculty can see a variety of art.
The new art exhibit displayed on the first floor of The Quick Center is by photojournalist Brendan Bannon and his students in Jordan and Lebanon.
Bannon received the necessary funding from the United Nations, which enabled him to travel to Jordan and Lebanon and work closely with Syrian children in refugee camps there.
“[Bannon] goes to the refugee camps, which is a huge settlement, and he works with someone from the UN who runs the refugee camps,” Penman said.
Penman explained that the person who Bannon works with helps him to select about 20 students to take his photography class.
The students range from ages 14 to 20. Bannon gives students cameras, and then he teaches them how to use them.
The pictures taken by the students are displayed with a caption they wrote for their pictures.
Instead of a typical caption written in small font below the displayed picture, these captions, along with the name of the child who took it, are displayed in a large font on the image itself.
This is a unique aspect of the photographs in the exhibit.
Students can see the pictures while walking through the first floor of The Quick Center.
“Do You See What I See?” is written on the wall, along with “Images of Life in a Syrian Refugee Camp,” with framed pictures underneath.
The pictures are bold and colorful, and they each represent the life of a child in the refugee camps, Penman said. Each child in the refugee camps has a story to tell, and that can be seen through the pictures displayed.
“The photography class allows the children to express themselves through taking pictures,” Penman said. “The kids can show their situation where they live.”
Penman added that there will be an upcoming Skype discussion in The Quick Center with Brendan Bannon, and he will possibly have one of his students with him.
All are invited to attend the event. The exact date has not been determined yet, but it will be posted on the Notice Board.
It will be opened for all to see until June, and then it will be taken to the Chautauqua Institute.
